Archive for the ‘Biofreeze’ Category

How do chiropractic marketers measure their return on investment (ROI) when it comes to social media? After all, follows, likes and repins are not the usual marketing metrics. At the same time, the standard performance indicators we typically use to gauge the success or failure of digital marketing don’t apply as easily to social media. Counting website hits and click-throughs are not a means of measuring ROI in this realm. Social media marketing is still in its early days for most chiropractors and monitoring a few key metrics can help you determine whether your efforts and initiatives in social are moving the needle for your practice.

As you look forward to the year ahead and begin allocating your marketing resources, take time to consider the following metrics and related critical questions.

Share of Voice

How does your practice’s social presence stack up against your competitors’ not only in terms of the size of your audience (number of followers, fans, pinners, etc.), but in terms of their level of engagement? How engaged are your patients and potential patients compared to those of your competitors? How many people are talking about your practice, how frequently and in what context?

Conversations

Are you having conversations with your patients? If not, it’s time to re-examine the content you are posting. Conversations put the “social” in social media. Don’t speak at your audience, speak with them. Every post is an opportunity to stimulate a dialogue. Creating dialogues increases your patients’ affinity to your practice.

Advocates

Do you have any patients who have become super followers or super fans of your practice’s social media? If the answer is yes, be sure that you leverage their passion for your practice. If the answer is no, you may be missing out on a huge opportunity to increase the number of potential patients who have been exposed to your practice in the past, but are now compelled to try it, thanks to a super fan’s glowing recommendation. Take the opportunity to activate your super fans by noticing them and engaging with them.

Product Guidance

Are you asking your patients questions to learn what they like about your practice and the products and services you provide? Social media provides your practice with the access to a large, free, real-time focus group. You can leverage your social network to help guide you in which products and services you choose to offer. This can help save you from making timely and costly mistakes. Many times you don’t even have to ask—just simply listen and respond. As an example, a chiropractor added massage therapy to his practice. The comments of the long wait time caused by an out of touch massage therapist caused the chiropractor to change the flow in the office to decrease wasted time. Patients were thrilled with the changes and posted their overwhelmingly positive responses.

Critical Questions

These metrics don’t show the complete picture of how social media can affect your practice’s bottom line. Several follow-up questions can help you determine how effective you are at engaging your social media audience.

Do more people know about your practice than before?

How to learn it: Measure the number of mentions your practice receives and the number of positive reviews you generate and compare your results to the volume of traffic on the social sites of the other chiropractic practices in your community per reporting period.

Are more people hearing your message than before?

How to learn it: This is called your practice’s reach. Measure the growth in the number of your followers/fans per reporting period. You can enlist tools that measure Twitter reach and use tools such as LinkedIn analytics and Facebook Insights that report on number of impressions.

Areyour posts generating traffic?

How to learn it: If you are being truly engaging, interesting and valuable in all of your social media interactions, then you are not simply sharing all of your content day after day. However, when you do link back to your own website’s content, measure the resulting traffic to your site via Google Analytics. Then you can drill down to determine which traffic was nurtured through social media.

Are people reacting to what you’re putting out there?

How to learn it: Measure the number of click-throughs your posts receive as well as the number of comments per post. The number of shares and retweets your posts receive is a great way to identify the number of super fans you are engaging per reporting period.

Social Media ROI is Complex

Social media ROI is clearly more complex than a simple cost vs. practice awareness equation. While social can certainly affect the journey of patients to your practice, it cannot be simply superimposed over it. There are just too many touchpoints in too many places to limit social to one fixed point along a patient’s path.

The ROI of social media for your practice is delayed ROI. This may be tough for many chiropractic marketers to swallow, but it goes back to your overall marketing strategy. Social is not just another marketing channel; it is a critical part of your practice’s overall communication platform. It touches many areas within your practice from patients’ retweets all the way up to the chiropractor’s blog posts.

When it comes to social, chiropractic marketers shouldn’t be hyper-focused on the immediate ROI, but instead get your practice team focused on another question: What have we learned today from our patients?

Dr. Mark Sanna is a member of the Chiropractic Summit, the ACA Governor’s Advisory Board and a board member of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. He is the president and CEO of Breakthrough Coaching (www.mybreakthrough.com 1-800-723-8423).

One of the more challenging aspects of owning your own business is that the proverbial buck stops with you. This entrepreneurial aspect of owning a practice frustrates many chiropractors. Being the owner of your practice requires you to exercise your skills in leadership in order to get your team to work together and take direction. This is true in all forms of business, including the chiropractic practice. However, you can’t lead others unless you’re in a good position to lead. The proper care and feeding of your practice team begins with proper care and feeding of the team leader—you.

Burnout Is a Serious Threat

You need to be aware of how sharp your sword is before you try to sharpen someone else’s.

Burnout is a serious threat. It steals the passion that inspired you to go into practice in the first place. Without passion, your ability and willingness to do what it takes to make your practice a success quickly diminishes.

Symptoms of Burnout

You find yourself resenting your patients instead of wanting to help them.

You dislike your employees because you think that they’re making constant demands.

You snap at your spouse when asked how your day went.

You’re constantly feeling pressured and unable to relax.

At first glance these behaviors may seem ridiculous, but unfortunately they are indicative of a way of life for many chiropractors. They’ve become stuck in fast forward and so entrenched in their practice that they “don’t have time” for friendships, having fun, being creative, hanging out or simply resting. They have difficulty relaxing enough to sleep at night. When they do wake up, they speed through their morning routine and rush to arrive at the practice on time. By the time they do arrive, they’re ready for a morning break. This is a classic formula for burnout!

You have two simultaneous roles in your practice. You play both the role of an employer and of an employee. If you worked for an employer who expected you to work non-stop, never allowing time off, paying less than you are worth, you’d soon have your resume updated and you’d be out the door. While you would never consider treating your employees this way, many practice owners work themselves harder than they would ever ask someone on their team to work.

Faced with the increasing pressures placed upon all health care practitioners, it’s not uncommon for practice owners to take on more than they can handle. They increase the number and speed of their activities, raise their goals, and introduce new systems at a furious pace. And after initial success, too often they try to make this furious pace the new normal. What began as an exceptional burst of achievement becomes chronic overloading, with dire consequences. Not only does the frenetic pace sap your energy, it can zap the motivation of your entire practice team.

Keep Yourself Fresh and Engaged

How do you keep yourself fresh and engaged? What are you going to do to keep yourself from being overwhelmed? Begin by delegating or outsourcing the tasks that are draining you and creating an unhealthy environment. If insurance billing and collections are zapping the life out of your practice, consider outsourcing these functions to a billing company. One of the most useful roles a practice management consultant can play is to provide a non-emotional evaluation of what’s working and what isn’t in your practice.

Like a fish that isn’t aware of the water it is swimming in, you may be too close to your practice or too emotionally engaged to remain objective. Don’t reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to. A good consultant can help you find simpler, easier ways to do what isn’t working. Just say, “Okay, this is an area that’s draining our practice. Coach, how can you help us?”

Schedule Regular Time Off

Some doctors insist that they can’t take time off or they can’t afford to hire a covering doctor. Whatever point your practice is at, you are the pilot of your ship. If you feel that you can’t step away from your practice, start putting a plan in place so that you can take time off in the future. It’s been said that a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. It takes nothing away from you to pass on your flame. But how can you light the fire in your practice team if your candle’s not burning?

Learn to take care of yourself. This is why taking adequate time away from your routine is so crucial. Taking care of your mental psyche includes taking the initiative of giving yourself proper time to relax and unwind. Clearing your mind is not only good for reducing the stress that accumulates during everyday life, but it also provides an opportunity to take a step back and re-assessing what you have been doing and the direction you are heading.

Take Care of the People Who Take Care of You

Be aware of the work environment that you’re creating for your employees. Make sure that you’re treating your practice team the way that you would want to be treated. Preventing burnout must be part of your business plan. Begin by scheduling weekly one to two minute long standing meetings with each team member on a one-on-one basis. This will provide you with the opportunity to acknowledge and praise them for their successes and to perform a “gut check” to see if problems are brewing – long before you might discover them otherwise. This is also your chance to listen to hear if problems are brewing with other team members.

Use cross training to build your team. Give each team member the opportunity to share their role with another member of the team. By learning each other’s job responsibilities, individual team members become aware that they’re not an isolated component of the practice. This helps to make sure that everyone “gets” the big picture and understands how the work they do helps the practice achieve specific goals.

Cross training makes team members more valuable (and normally provides job security). Often people don’t want to learn new skills because they’re afraid. And they don’t want to teach others their skills because they’re afraid they will become less valuable to the practice. In reality, the more each team member knows, the more valuable they are to the practice. To make cross training work, identify the critical skills that make your practice function. Set up a schedule of activities to train team members and give them an opportunity to grow in a safe environment. You can build upon this idea by holding monthly in-services during which your team members have the opportunity to showcase their role in the practice to the rest of the team.

Acknowledge and Reward Success

Reward your team members for a job well done. There are countless recognition programs in place in chiropractic practices. The most successful programs are custom tailored to what inspires the individual members or the team. Ask each team member to create a wish list of those things that would motivate them personally to hit their goals. Rewards do not always have to be monetary in nature. Non-monetary rewards form one important part of a complete recognition program. Nonmonetary rewards include such items as being thanked publicly at a team meeting, having lunch with the team member of their choice, or receiving an extra day off. The desired outcome of a rewards and recognition program is to improve performance. Each team member should have their own list of goals and the associated rewards, ranked by value, based upon the significance of their achievement to the practice.

Build a culture in your practice that encourages accomplishment. Take the time to poke your head into your team members’ space just to say “thank you” for a job well done. This brief moment of acknowledgement will ensure that the individual knows what they did was important and is appreciated by you. In addition to acknowledging your team’s individual efforts, you can celebrate success extravagantly by popping the cork on a bottle of champagne when your team hits a collective goal, or in a more low key fashion with bagels the next morning with a note of thanks. The important thing is to ensure that individual efforts are noted and appreciated.

Share Your Goals with Your Team

To make your goals live you need to write them down and verbalize them. Share them with your team and to ask each individual to help hold each other accountable. Practice visualizing your goals vividly and communicating them with energy and enthusiasm. If you want your team to help grow your practice, you must share your vision of what you want the practice to be. Establish beginning and ending points. Your team won’t know if they’re moving the needle if they don’t know where they are today and they’ll have no way of knowing when they cross the finish line if they don’t know where the finish line is. Set a goal with your team to become the very best team possible and celebrate your accomplishments along the way!

Dr. Mark Sanna is the CEO of Breakthrough Coaching. He is a member of the Chiropractic Summit and a board member of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. You can learn more about Breakthrough Coaching by visiting www. mybreakthrough.com or by calling 1-800-723-8423.

The expansion of Obamacare has made insurance policies with $10,000 to $15,000 deductibles commonplace. Savvy health care consumers are making more cautious decisions about where to spend their discretionary healthcare dollars than ever before. This leaves many chiropractors struggling with a choice of being a cash or insurance‐based practice. They wonder if the increased demands upon their and their practice team members’ time that come with accepting insurance is a viable business model for their practice future. Many chiropractors facing this dilemma feel that they must choose either cash or insurance as an “all in” or “all out” strategy.

The Either/Or Scenario

Chiropractors who choose to opt out of insurance reimbursement do so because they believe that removing the burdens of dealing with third party reimbursement will reduce their daily level of stress and free them to offer patients more affordable payment options. Many times these practices offer services at reduced fees. Due to their lower fees, seeing a high volume of patients is often the way that these chiropractors can generate a level of income that will support their overhead and lifestyle.

Chiropractors who choose to focus solely on the insurance‐based model of care confront a different set of problems. With increased limitations on chiropractic coverage, including the number of visits allowed, these practitioners often times tailor their patient recommendations to the level of services covered by third party payers. Practicing to meet the requirements of insurance payers takes the focus away from the patient’s health needs.

I’ve seen chiropractors place themselves and their practice in jeopardy because of their lack of knowledge of the significant regulatory and compliance requirements that remain in place whether they decide to accept insurance or not. The “let’s make a deal” payment plans offered by both cash‐only and insurance‐based practices walk a fine line between what is legal and what is not. Offering the same service for different fees is considered a dual fee schedule and is illegal.

Blend the Best of Both

No wonder chiropractors are confused. Let me assure you that it is possible to create a practice that blends the best of both cash and insurance. Your practice can deliver affordable care to a high volume of patients while meeting the requirements of insurance reimbursement. This may be easier to achieve then you may think. The first step is to establish a compliant fee schedule that allows you to accept limited insurance coverage while at the same time offering your patients legal discounts. This can only be done by joining a recognized Discount Medical Plan Organization (DMPO) and creating a cash‐based fee schedule that is published and available to all patients regardless of their level of (or lack of) insurance coverage. A DMPO allows you to blend covered and uncovered services into an affordable payment plan that fits the financial requirements of care into the patient’s family budget. It also allows you to inform patients what their financial responsibility will be from their very first visit. This removes stress from providers, practice team members and patients.

Moments of Truth

Along with compliant patient financial procedures, the blended practice has a system of compliant patient care procedures that begin with a new patient’s first interactions with your practice. How your practice team handles these moments of truth is essential to your success.

Patients make both conscious and subconscious decisions as to how much they are willing to spend when they purchase care from you. You can build the perceived value for your care by creating an extraordinary first visit experience for your new patients. When delivered correctly you should regularly hear the words, “That was the most thorough examination that I have ever received—I feel like I’m in the right place!” To consistently achieve this high level of perceived value requires you to take a fresh look at the services you provide on a patient’s first visit. These include: your consultation and examination procedures.

Build Value with Your Consultation & Examination

New patient procedures begin with the consultation. During your consultation, let patients know that you’ll be listening closely to the answers that they provide to the questions that you ask them while taking their history. Let them know that their answers will guide you in the choice of which tests you will perform and which instruments you use during their examination. Let them know that this allows you to customize their examination to specifically look for the cause of their condition. Custom‐designed items and services carry a higher perceived value then their off‐the‐shelf, generic counterparts. By letting patients know that they will be receiving a customized examination you increase the value that they place upon your service.

You can add tremendous value to your examination procedures simply by recording them with a digital recorder. Inform the patient that you record all of your examinations and get their permission for the recording. Recording your exam accomplishes several goals. Most people don’t like to hear themselves recorded. For this reason, patients tend to be quiet during your examination and this allows you to proceed with your examination without extraneous comments and conversation.

As you examine the patient, call out your findings to the recorder. Rather than the typical silence on the part of the examiner, which can be confusing and unsettling to the patient, you’ll be providing value‐building information. A patient undergoing a Lasègue test may think that you are simply lifting their leg until it hurts. Calling out the finding “Lasègue test positive on the right hand side at 45 out of 90 degrees for L5 nerve root tension” lets the patient know that you have found something wrong with them. This will limit much of what is covered in a traditional Report of Findings. The patient has listened to your Report of Findings during the examination process. This raises the value of the entire procedure and lets the patient know that you are actively examining them to uncover the cause of their problem.

Build Value with Your Report of Findings

I counsel my clients to avoid adjusting their new patients on their first visit. Providing palliative therapies to decrease pain and inflammation is encouraged. Adjusting the patient immediately following their examination decreases the perceived value of your care exponentially. How significant could the patient’s problem be if you determined the cause and applied the correction within minutes of meeting the patient? If you feel that you absolutely must deliver an adjustment on the patient’s first visit, I encourage you to send the patient home for several hours to rest while you review your examination findings and create your plan of care. Have the patient return later in the day for their report.

Having the patient return for their Report of Findings and first adjustment gives your practice team time to verify insurance benefits. You will know the patient’s level of coverage and the doctor will have created an initial plan of care. You can now estimate the patient’s financial responsibility for their course of care and create a payment plan without the stress of having to do it on the spot, while the patient is waiting to receive care. You can deliver a financial consultation to the patient immediately following their Report of Findings.

Begin your Report of Findings by confirming to the patient that your examination uncovered the cause of their condition and that you have the ability to provide them with the care that they need. At this point patients will be concerned with two primary questions: they want to know how long it will take and how much it will cost. The blended practice, utilizing a compliant DMPO fee schedule can make a recommendation for care based upon what the patient needs and not what their insurance does or doesn’t cover. This allows you to give the patient your recommendations for care based upon your estimation of how long it will take for their condition to resolve and not their financial circumstances.

Increase Case Acceptance

Add these steps to your new patient procedures and you will increase the value of your care in the eyes of your new patients. Handling patient finances skillfully, upfront by blending
insurance benefits and cash in a unified payment plan decreases stress and increases case acceptance. Patients are more likely to follow through with your recommendations when their financial commitment has been taken care of in advance when their perceived value of your service is at its highest level.

At Scrip Hessco, chiropractors can find the products that they require, easily, conveniently, and affordably. Scrip Hessco’s massive inventory allows chiropractors to search for specific items, or browse for new and exciting options. The most successful chiropractors are the ones that are constantly evolving and taking necessary steps to keep business fresh and interesting for the patients, as well as for themselves.

For more than 40 years, ScripHessco has been the leading full-service distributor of chiropractic supplies such as Biofreeze and equipment to the chiropractic industry. Rely on ScripHessco to help you serve your patients and grow your business with popular resale items.

We live in a digital time. Our rhythms are rushed, rapid fire and relentless, our days carved up into bits and bytes. We celebrate quick reaction more than considered reflection. We skim across the surface, alighting for brief moments at dozens of destinations but rarely remaining for long at any one. We race through our lives without pausing to consider who we really want to be or where we really want to go. We’re wired up but we’re melting down. Most of us are just tying to do the best that we can. We survive on too little sleep, wolf down fast foods on the run, fuel up with coffee and cool down with alcohol and sleeping pills. Faced with relentless demands at work, we become short‐tempered and easily distracted. We return home from long days at work feeling exhausted and often experience our families not as a source of joy and renewal, but as one more demand in an already overburdened life.

Consider these scenarios:

 You attend an hour‐long Team Meeting in which not a single second is wasted – but during the final half hour your energy level drops off and you struggle to stay focused.

 You race through a meticulously scheduled four‐hour shift but by midway your energy has turned negative‐impatient, edgy and irritable.

 You set aside time to be with your children when you get home at the end of the day, but you are so distracted by thoughts about work that you never really give them your full attention.

 You remember your wedding anniversary – your computer alerts you and so does your smart device– but by the evening, you are too tired to go out and celebrate.

Energy, not time is the fundamental currency of high performance.

This insight revolutionized my thinking about what drives enduring high performance. It has also prompted a dramatic transformation in the way I coach my clients to manage their lives, personally and professionally. Everything they do – from interacting with patients and staff to spending time with their families – requires energy. Obvious as this seems, we often fail to take into account the importance of energy at work and in our personal lives. Without the right quantity, quality, focus and force of energy, we are compromised in any activity we undertake.

Performance, health and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy.

There are undeniably difficult patients, tough days, bad relationships and real life crises. Nonetheless, we have far more control over our energy than we realize. The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not. It is our most precious resource. The more we take responsibility for the energy we bring to the world, the more empowered and productive we become. The more we blame others or external circumstances, the more negative and compromised our energy will be.
If you could wake up tomorrow with significantly more positive, focused energy to invest in your practice and with your family, how significantly would that change your life for the better? As a leader and a manager, how valuable would it be to bring more positive energy and passion to your practice? If your practice team could call on more positive energy, how would it affect their relationships with one another, and the quality of service that they deliver to your patients?

To be fully engaged, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self‐interest. Full engagement begins with feeling eager to get to the practice in the morning, equally happy to return home in the evening and capable of setting clear boundaries between the two. It means being able to immerse yourself in the mission you are on, whether it is grappling with a frustrating challenge in the practice, managing your practice team on a project, spending time with loved ones or simply having fun. Full engagement implies a fundamental shift in the way we live our lives.

You must become fully engaged. Four key energy management principles drive this process.

Principle 1: Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

Human beings are complex energy systems, and full engagement is not simply one‐dimensional. The energy that pulses through us is physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. All four dynamics are critical, none is sufficient by itself and each profoundly influences the others. To perform at our best, we must skillfully manage each of these interconnected dimensions of energy. Subtract any one from the equation and our capacity to fully ignite our talent and skill is diminished, much the way an engine sputters when one of its cylinders’ misfires. The more toxic and unpleasant the energy, the less effectively it serves performance; the more positive and pleasant the energy, the more efficient it is. Imagine for a moment that you are about to have a chiropractic adjustment. Which energy quadrant would you want your chiropractor to be in? How would you feel if he entered the adjusting room feeling angry, frustrated and anxious? What if he was disengaged, laid back and slightly spacey? Obviously, you want your chiropractor energized, confident and upbeat.

Principle 2: Because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.

We rarely consider how much energy we are spending because we take it for granted that the energy available to us is limitless. In fact, increased demand progressively depletes our energy reserves – especially in the absence of any effort to reverse the progressive loss of capacity that occurs with age. By training in all dimensions we can dramatically slow our decline physically and mentally, and we can actually deepen our emotional and spiritual capacity until the very end of our lives.

When we live highly linear lives – spending far more energy than we recover or recovering more than we spend – the eventual consequence is that we break down, burn out, atrophy, lose our passion and get sick. Sadly, the need for recovery is often viewed as a sign of weakness rather than as an integral aspect of sustained performance. The result is that we give almost no attention to renewing and expanding our energy reserves, individually or for our practice.

To maintain a powerful pulse in our lives, we must learn how to rhythmically spend and renew energy.

The richest, happiest and most productive lives are characterized by the ability to fully engage in the challenge at hand, but also to disengage periodically and seek renewal. Instead, many of us live our lives as if we are running in an endless marathon, pushing ourselves far beyond healthy levels of exertion. We become flat liners mentally and emotionally by relentlessly spending energy without sufficient recovery. We become flat liners physically and spiritually by not expending enough energy. Either way, we slowly but inexorably wear down. Think for a moment about the look of many long‐distance runners: gaunt, sallow, slightly sunken and emotionally flat. Now visualize a sprinter. Sprinters typically look powerful, bursting with energy and eager to push themselves to their limits. The explanation is simple. No matter how intense the demand they face, the finish line is clearly visible 100 or 200 meters down the track. We too must learn to live our lives as a series of sprints – fully engaging for periods of time and then fully disengaging and seeking renewal before jumping back into the fray to face whatever challenges confront us.

Principle 3: To build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do.

Stress is not the enemy in our lives. Paradoxically, it is the key to growth. In order to build strength in a muscle, we must systematically stress it, expending energy beyond normal levels. Doing so literally causes microscopic tears in the muscle fibers. At the end of a training session, functional capacity is diminished. But give the muscle twenty‐four to forty‐eight hours to recover, and it grows stronger and better able to handle the next stimulus. While this training phenomenon had been applied largely to building physical strength, it is just as relevant to building “muscles” in every dimension of our lives – from empathy and patience to focus and creativity to integrity and commitment. What applies to the body applies equally to the other dimensions of our lives.

We build emotional, mental and spiritual capacity in precisely the same way that we build physical capacity.

We grow at all levels by expending energy beyond our ordinary limits and then recovering. Expose a muscle to ordinary demand and it won’t grow. With age it will actually lose strength. The limiting factor in building any muscle is that many of us back off at the slightest hint of discomfort. To meet increased demand in our lives, we must learn to systematically build and
strengthen muscles wherever our capacity is insufficient. Any form of stress that prompts discomfort has the potential to expand our capacity – physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually – so long as it is followed by adequate recovery.

Principle 4: Positive energy rituals – highly specific routines for managing energy – are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.

Change is difficult. We are creatures of habit. Most of what we do is automatic and nonconscious. What we did yesterday is what we are likely to do today. The problem with most efforts to change is that conscious effort can’t be sustained over the long haul. Will and discipline are far more limited resources than most of us realize. If you have to think about something each time you do it, the likelihood is that you won’t keep doing it for very long. The status quo has a magnetic pull on us.

A positive ritual is a behavior that becomes automatic over time – fueled by some deeply held value.

I use the word ritual purposefully to emphasize the notion of a carefully defined, highly structured behavior. In contrast to will and discipline, which requires pushing yourself to a particular behavior, a ritual pulls at you. Think of something as simple as brushing your teeth. It is not something that you ordinarily have to remind yourself to do. Brushing your teeth is something to which you feel consistently drawn, compelled by its clear health value. You do it largely on automatic pilot, without much conscious effort or intention. The power of rituals is that they insure that we use as little conscious energy as possible where it is not absolutely necessary, leaving us free to strategically focus the energy available to us in creative, enriching ways.

Look at any part of your life in which you are consistently effective and you will find that certain habits help make that possible. If you eat in a healthy way, it is probably because you have built routines around the food you buy and what you are willing to order at restaurants. If you are fit, it is probably because you have regular days and times for working out. If you manage your practice team well, you likely have a style of giving feedback that leaves people feeling challenged rather than threatened. If you are closely connected to your spouse and your children, you probably have rituals around spending time together with them. Creating positive rituals is the most powerful and effective way to manage energy in the service of full engagement.

Dr. Mark Sanna is a member of the Chiropractic Summit and a board member of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. He is the president and CEO of Breakthrough Coaching. (www.mybreakthrough.com 1‐800‐723‐8423).

At Scrip Hessco, chiropractors can find the products that they require, easily, conveniently, and affordably. Scrip Hessco’s massive inventory allows chiropractors to search for specific items, or browse for new and exciting options. The most successful chiropractors are the ones that are constantly evolving and taking necessary steps to keep business fresh and interesting for the patients, as well as for themselves.

For more than 40 years, ScripHessco has been the leading full-service distributor of chiropractic supplies such as Biofreeze and equipment to the chiropractic industry. Rely on ScripHessco to help you serve your patients and grow your business with popular resale items.

Building a successful chiropractic practice can be a competitive business. You must continually advance your practice by attracting new patients, maintaining the ones you already have and incorporating new technologies and techniques. This is something you must do continually or your practice will stagnate rather than expand.

Win on the Web

There is a high likelihood that your next new patient will search for you on the web even if they have been referred by one of your current patients. Make sure that their first impression of your practice is excellent by hiring a professional web designer to build a website for your practice. Make sure that the content is written with search engine optimization in mind, so prospective patients will find you when searching the web. If you don’t already have a catchy phrase or brilliant logo for your practice, now would be the time to create one. Include well produced, short video clips so that patients can get to know something about you before coming to your practice. Patients come to your practice assuming you know how to do chiropractic, but what they really want is to get to know you and your staff. They want to be welcomed and feel that they have made a good decision on how to spend their hard earned dollars on their health. If they like how they are treated and feel you have their best interests at heart, then they will trust you.

Review Your Software

If you are serious about expanding your chiropractic practice, you must be sure the software system you have in place will accommodate the growth and the requirements of electronic records management. If you’re unsure if you have the right software, you will need to review several different systems to determine which will best suit your needs. Practice can become a nightmare if you don’t have the proper software to track appointments, insurance claims, patient records, and payments. The right software should allow you to file insurance claims electronically to save you time and paperwork. A good piece of software will allow you to track your practice, spot trends in services and reimbursement, and help you grow into a profitable practice all at the same time.

Market Internally

Internal marketing and word-of-mouth advertising are the best two ways to attract new patients. They are also the least expensive methods of advertising. Word-of-mouth is spread mostly by people who come to you for chiropractic services and are pleased with your work. Patients who are pleased with their chiropractor, typically recommend them to their friends and family members. You can encourage former patients who no longer visit you by reaching out to them with reminder postcards for a check-up or for other services. If you don’t get an immediate response, continue to mail on a quarterly basis. It often takes several contacts before a reminder will spur someone into action. In addition to postcards, write and send a monthly newsletter to all of your patients via e-mail. Include useful information that educates your patients while subtly promoting your practice.

Maintain Current Patients

Although it is normal to lose some patients, you can advance your chiropractic practice by maintaining as many as possible. According to expert practice builders, twenty five percent of your marketing efforts should be focused on attracting new patients to your practice. Your main focus should be on retaining your current patients. Make sure that your current patients are satisfied with your service so they won’t think about finding another chiropractor. Build strong relationships with your patients. Chiropractors who focus on their patients and establish strong relationships increase their revenues, even during financially hard times. Make an effort to remember each patient’s personal information and family members’ names to show that you value their business and see them as an important part of your practice. Solicit your patients’ feedback about their experience with your practice and use the information to realize your strengths and fix your weaknesses.

Attract New Patients

Even if you have a large patient base, over time some patients will stop coming in for various reasons. They may move, lose or change their insurance or simply decide to try another chiropractor. Play an active role in your community. Performing community outreach by volunteering to speak at schools, service organizations, local employers and other groups is a highly effective way to attract new patients. Give presentations on topics consistent with your philosophy on health and wellness to bring visibility to your practice and promote your expertise.

Most organizations won’t mind if you pass out business cards after your talk. Even if you don’t, people who are looking for a chiropractor will remember your presentation and will locate you via your website. Where state laws allow, you can make yourself especially attractive to new patients by giving them a special offer. Offer a complementary consultation or other service and let people know that you will extend the offer to their family members, friends and co-workers. Reward people who refer new patients to your practice. Give them a small item, such as a gift card, for each family member or friend they refer to you.

Expand Your Services

One way to grow your practice is by offering new products services. There are many services that are compatible with chiropractic care. Nutritional supplements, orthotics and supports are natural compliments to chiropractic care. Massage therapy, acupuncture and exercise therapy are high demand procedures that fit well in a chiropractic setting. Research the services that are in demand and determine whether they will be profitable for your practice to offer them. Be aware of the services that other health care providers are offering in your community to be sure that your practice remains competitive. Review the pages of this and other chiropractic publications on a regular basis to keep up to date on current practice trends.

Add New Technologies

One important way to advance your chiropractic practice is to keep your technology up-to-date. This is especially important when a new technique or piece of equipment can help differentiate your practice by making your procedures easier and more comfortable for your patients. For example, you can switch to digital x-rays that can be read immediately and deliver less exposure to radiation. The new generations of hand-held instrument adjusting devices come equipped with auditory feedback signals that indicate to both doctor and patients that a desired level of movement has been achieved. Many chiropractors are finding that laser therapy is an excellent high-tech adjunct to the traditional modalities they offer. The results are well documented and providing laser therapy can create the cutting-edge buzz that helps to grow a practice. Feature your use of technology prominently in your ads and on your website. Send postcards to patients notifying them when you incorporate something new and beneficial into your practice.

Focus on Your Patients

Make the choice to establish, build, and retain solid relationships with your patients. Listen to what they want and treat them well. Give them the intrinsic value they seek from choosing your practice. Deliver quality care above and beyond what they expect. The payback for you will be increased patient referrals, more satisfied patients, and greater profitability. It is then that your practice can continue to grow and truly flourish.

Dr. Mark Sanna is a member of the Chiropractic Summit, the ACA Governor’s Advisory Board and a board member of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. He is the president and CEO of Breakthrough Coaching

At Scriphessco.com, chiropractors can find the products that they require, easily, conveniently, and affordably. Scrip Hessco’s massive inventory allows chiropractors to search for specific items, or browse for new and exciting options. The most successful chiropractors are the ones that are constantly evolving and taking necessary steps to keep business fresh and interesting for the patients, as well as for themselves.

For more than 40 years, Scrip Hessco has been the leading full-service distributor of chiropractic supplies such asBiofreeze and equipment to the chiropractic industry. Rely on Scrip Hessco to help you serve your patients and grow your business with popular resale items.

The Fall Biofreeze promotion has started so stock up now and save. The Presale is going on now and we will ship your order 9/1/14. Free Biofreeze: Buy 20, Get 4 FREE or Buy 38, Get 10 FREE PLUS a Free Bon Vital Massage Kit!

See all the Fall biofreeze promos here.
https://www.scriphessco.com/shop-by-department/promotions/biofreeze-2014-fall-promotion/

At Scriphessco.com, chiropractors can find the products that they require, easily, conveniently, and affordably. Scrip Hessco’s massive inventory allows chiropractors to search for specific items, or browse for new and exciting options. The most successful chiropractors are the ones that are constantly evolving and taking necessary steps to keep business fresh and interesting for the patients, as well as for themselves.

For more than 40 years, Scrip Hessco has been the leading full-service distributor of chiropractic supplies such as Biofreeze and equipment to the chiropractic industry. Rely on Scrip Hessco to help you serve your patients and grow your business with popular resale items.

The Spring Biofreeze promotion has started so stock up now and save. The Presale is going on now and we will ship your order 3/1/14. Free Biofreeze: Buy 20, Get 4 FREE or Buy 38, Get 10 FREE PLUS 3 FREE Flex-i-Cold Cold Packs and 2 product displays!

Did you know….that back, shoulder and neck pain causes 49% of all work absences? Get your patients back to work with Biofreeze!

At Scriphessco.com, chiropractors can find the products that they require, easily, conveniently, and affordably. Scrip Hessco’s massive inventory allows chiropractors to search for specific items, or browse for new and exciting options. The most successful chiropractors are the ones that are constantly evolving and taking necessary steps to keep business fresh and interesting for the patients, as well as for themselves.

For more than 40 years, Scrip Hessco has been the leading full-service distributor of chiropractic supplies such as Biofreeze and equipment to the chiropractic industry. Rely on Scrip Hessco to help you serve your patients and grow your business with popular resale items.

In any business situation, it is important to grow and progress to keep up with modern demands. These days, the most successful businesses are the ones who offer unique products and services that can’t be found elsewhere. The same is true for chiropractors.

In order to bring in extra revenue, many chiropractors try to offer other products in addition to their adjustments. Becoming a source of unique products or services is a simple and effective way to attract new clients in the area and also keep loyal customers interested. Carrying natural products that will benefit patients will also prove that the chiropractor is dedicated to the pursuit of healthy living.

Plenty of products are available today that can be incorporated in the chiropractor’s office. Part of a chiropractor’s job is staying on top of the latest health advancements and sharing that information with their patients. People expect their chiropractor to be committed to wellness and offering some of these excellent products is a great way to go above and beyond for each valued customer.

1. Topical Analgesics. Chiropractors are known for promoting non-pharmaceutical pain reducing options, and topical analgesics are an ideal product to offer. These gels and creams are a healthy way to reduce chronic pain from home. Offering cooling or warming properties when applied, these help to reduce swelling and inflammation, while offering the user substantial relief from pain. A tube of Biofreeze, for example, will last for quite some time, and can alleviate pain at home, at work, in the car, or anywhere else where icing may not be convenient.

2. Cervical Pillows. It is quite common for poor sleeping habits to cause neck and back problems. Many pillows and mattresses don’t provide the support that the average person requires, which means that they are putting undue pressure on their spine and neck as they sleep. (1) Cervical pillows provide a better option than standard pillows and are ergonomically designed to keep the spine and neck as straight as possible. This will provide a better night’s sleep and reduce tension on the body.

3. Nutritional Supplements. The goal of chiropractic is to live a healthy lifestyle, and vitamins, supplemental cleansing teas, and foods, shakes, and sport drinks all go hand in hand with the basic wellness principles generally adhered to by chiropractors. Teas like Chiro-Klenz may help to make a chiropractic adjustment more effective by cleansing the body of toxins beforehand.

These three products are a wonderful addition to any Chiropractor’s office. A chiropractor can help his or her patients learn about new products and ideas that can directly benefit their lives, while bringing in some additional revenue in the process. At Scriphessco.com there are plenty of quality options that will make adding a retail aspect to a chiropractic office simple.

For more than 40 years, Scrip Hessco has been the leading full-service distributor of supplies and equipment to the chiropractic industry. Rely on Scrip Hessco to help you serve your patients and grow your business with popular resale items.

Performance Health has expanded its Biofreeze® product line with the introduction of Biofreeze Pain Relieving Singles, the perfect complement to at-home and in-clinic Biofreeze applications. This innovative packaging provides the power of Biofreeze in an ultra portable, no mess application providing pain relief—anytime, anywhere. Simply snap open the small pouch, apply Biofreeze to the painful area and continue with daily activities. The new Biofreeze Pain Relieving Singles will be available July 1, 2011.

Three top benefits including:

Nothing on the hands.

Easy to dispose.

Fits anywhere.

“We are very excited to launch this truly innovative addition to our highly respected and effective Biofreeze product family,” stated Jeff Mathers, product manager for Performance Health. “Pain can strike at inconvenient times and inconvenient places, and it’s not always feasible for patients to carry our larger patient-sized Biofreeze products. We encourage hands-on health care practitioners to recommend Biofreeze Singles as a complement the patient-sized products so that patients are protected no matter where they go. This stamp-sized packet fits in a wallet or purse and provides immediate access to Biofreeze pain relief. Even when patients are on-the-go, they don’t have to wait to treat pain.”

Biofreeze Pain Reliever is the number one clinically-used and recommended topical analgesic. It delivers targeted pain relief with the benefits of cryotherapy (cold therapy). Doctors, therapists and patients are shifting toward topical analgesics and away from systemic pain relievers, which can affect the gastrointestinal tract, heart, kidneys and other organs, as well as cognition. Conversely, topical analgesics deliver targeted pain relief with low levels of systemic absorption, which may result in less risk for systemic toxicity and/or drug interaction.